Abstract
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is a powerful imaging technique able to obtain astonishing images of the micro- and the nano-world. Unfortunately, the technique has been limited to vacuum conditions for many years. In the last decades, the ability to introduce water vapor into the SEM chamber and still collect the electrons by the detector, combined with the temperature control of the sample, has enabled the study of ice at nanoscale. Astounding images of hexagonal ice crystals suddenly became real. Since these first images were produced, several studies have been focusing their interest on using SEM to study ice nucleation, morphology, thaw, etc. In this paper, we want to review the different investigations devoted to this goal that have been conducted in recent years in the literature and the kind of information, beyond images, that was obtained. We focus our attention on studies trying to clarify the mechanisms of ice nucleation and those devoted to the study of ice dynamics. We also discuss these findings to elucidate the present and future of SEM applied to this field.
Highlights
Ice nucleation and water freezing are naturally occurring processes on Earth with an enormous impact on climate, geology, and life
In Environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) standard operation conditions, the gas introduced into the chamber can be water vapor, which greatly facilitates the investigations of water/solid interfaces, heterogeneous ice nucleation, and ice dynamics
The playwright and theatre director Henrik Ibsen first said, “A thousand words leave not the same deep impression as does a single deed”. After his death in 1906, this quote was rephrased into what we know “A picture is worth a thousand words”, which is a common saying. This explains very well the value that the ESEM technique has in the field of the understanding of heterogeneous ice nucleation
Summary
Ice nucleation and water freezing are naturally occurring processes on Earth with an enormous impact on climate, geology, and life. Many different techniques can be used to study water interaction with surfaces and heterogeneous nucleation, such as photon spectroscopy [2], optical microscope [3,4], and others All these techniques lack the spatial resolution needed to study it at the required nanometer range. Important knowledge has been obtained with the use of scanning probe microscopy techniques, which allowed for the study of ice on surfaces with high spatial resolution in different environmental conditions [5,6]. Such techniques always pay the price of the undesirable interaction between the probe and the water layers, perturbing the measurements [7]. We will review the use of the ESEM technique in the investigation concerning the ice nucleation already found in the literature and propose new possibilities this technique can offer for future investigations on this subject
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